May 3, 2008

tornado

Yesterday morning a tornado touched down a little over a block from our house, taking out the Asian market (next door to our favorite taco shop), a telephone pole, and a number of trees. Tragically, a 15 year old girl was killed on the other side of Hwy 412 when a tree fell on her home and crushed her. Our house and our closest neighbors have no damage, but we were all pretty shaken up.Here's what happened:The tornado siren woke me up out of a blissfully deep sleep at 4 am. Liam was sound asleep in his cradle, and Gabe was in such a deep sleep that I had to almost yell his name to wake him up (he normally sleeps through Liam's overnight feedings/diaper changes/crying). At first, the storm didn't sound like anything to really be worried about, and then the siren turned off. I went downstairs and turned on the news, just to see what Drew Michaels had to say. The screen was filled with a radar closeup of Siloam, with a huge red mass just across the stateline in OK. "If you live in Siloam, seek shelter immediately..." And then the power went out. I ran upstairs and grabbed Liam, and then the wind picked up and it started hailing. Gabe followed me downstairs, grabbed a flashlight, and started walking around the house, looking out the windows, admiring the storm like a crazy man while Liam and I huddled in the pantry. From inside the pantry, I could hear a loud rushing noise, and then it was over.We all went back to bed; Liam never even woke up.It wasn't until morning that we realized just how bad it was...We took some pictures, but our computer seems to have sent them to no-man's land. We'll try to take some more.